Educational Comparison: Adult Learning

Select a character from "The Color Purple" that you see as exemplifying adultlearning (I was thinking about the character, Celie). Think about how the theoretical perspectives you have chosen (I need to use two theorist's perspectives) can be used to explain the character's learning and development.

Compose and submit an essay that analyzes the character's learning through the perspectives of the two theorists you chose. Be sure to describe the character's learning. Explain the character and the context clearly and completely enough for any reader to make sense of your analysis. Through the perspective of each theorist, analyze what caused the character to learn.

Compare the two theories in terms of their explanatory power; that is, in terms of how well each theory explains the character's learning.

Solution Preview

Celie in "The Color Purple" represented the epitome of two theoretical concepts that are evident evidenced within the lexicon of learning theories. Schion's theoretical framework and Kolb & Kolb's theoretical framework will be used in this summary to explain how Celie learned and developed throughout the course of the film "The Color Purple". Celie was a person that is unfortunately all too true in reality, which is a child born into an abusive family. Her entire life was predicated upon abuse both sexually and physically. She was abused by her father beginning at the age of a young child, and had two children that were fathered by her own biological father.

Celie was subsequently married by her father at a young age to a wealthy abusive man that would continue to physically, mentally, and emotionally abuse her throughout her life. This is not an uncommon occurrence in real life across the globe as female children from India to America are abused by fathers, uncles, and other male relatives while unable to escape the horrid conditions and post-traumatic stresses that occur as a result of such abuse. This was the case with Celie as she only knew abuse her entire life. This shaped her view of the world and how she lived wherein she expected that abuse was the normal way of life and how people behaved as she was abused from a child into adulthood.

Celie is transformed as she finds her self-worth through the help of two strong female companions that enable her to learn about how women should be treated. Shug, a woman that Celie's husband has always harbored strong desire and feelings for comes to live with ...